Thai authorities are closing in on Kok An, a powerful Cambodian senator and casino tycoon accused of masterminding a vast transnational scam network along the border.
Dubbed the “Godfather of Poipet”, the 71-year-old gambling magnate with close ties to Hun Sen faces an escalating crackdown.
Police have raided at least 26 properties across Bangkok and other provinces – most registered under his children’s names – seizing assets worth over 1.1 billion baht (US$30 million). But Kok An and his family were nowhere to be found.
Reports suggest he had already slipped out of Thailand.
Carrying Thai ID cards
The raids came after the Thai Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on July 7, accusing Kok An of involvement in a transnational criminal organisation.
Investigators sought the warrant after discovering that his casino buildings in Poipet, just across the border from Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, were hosting scam operations targeting Thai nationals.
Arrest warrants for Kok An’s three adult children were issued a week later. Juree, Phu Cherin, and Kittisak – who carry Thai ID cards under the surname “Klongkitjakon” – are wanted on the same charge as their father: involvement in transnational crime.
Police are also investigating whether they obtained their Thai ID cards legally.
The crackdown against Hun Sen’s longtime ally comes as Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s government reels from political turmoil triggered by her leaked phone call with the Cambodian strongman.
The Thai PM was caught deferring to Cambodia’s former leader while discussing an ongoing border dispute.
In the recording, which was released by Hun Sen's social media in mid-June, Paetongtarn was also heard criticising the Thai military commander overseeing border security.
Despite officially handing power to his son Hun Manet in 2023, Hun Sen – who ruled Cambodia for over three decades – is still widely considered the country’s de facto leader.
He is currently president of both the governing Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the Senate.
Linked to controversies
Kok An, born in 1954 to an ethnic Chinese family in Koh Kong just across the border from Thailand’s Trat province, rose from humble beginnings to become one of Cambodia’s richest and powerful figures.
His business empire spans casinos, tobacco, alcohol, and fisheries while his political clout comes from his status as a four-term senator with the ruling CPP, controlled by Hun Sen and his clan.
Kok An also holds the Cambodian title “Okhna” (“nobleman” or “lord”), usually reserved for wealthy tycoons with close ties to the ruling elite.
The powerful businessman has been linked with scandals involving online scams, corruption, and human trafficking.
In 2016, dozens of Chinese nationals were caught running an online extortion centre at Kok An’s Crown Casino in Poipet. Three years ago, a Thai national was found dead at the same casino – one of hundreds of Thais believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in border cyber-scam operations.
The 25-storey building reportedly continues to serve as a hub of transnational call-centre fraud.
Cambodian oligarch
Kok An is a “key actor” in Cambodia’s human trafficking-fueled cybercrime sector, according to a recent report by the UK-based Humanity Research Consultancy.
Titled “Policies and Patterns: State-Abetted Transnational Crime in Cambodia as a Global Security Threat”, the report names Kok An among 28 political elites linked to a transnational scam network powered by trafficked workers under the control of criminal gangs.
“There exists a powerful class of Cambodian oligarchs who hold direct ownership stakes in the infrastructure and technology used to perpetuate criminal activity,” the report states.
It adds that these oligarchs amassed vast wealth through landgrabs during Cambodia’s rapid economic liberalisation in the early 1990.
They then leveraged deep political connections to build extractive and criminal empires that have flourished ever since.
Kok An is named alongside two other prominent figures: Try Pheap, an adviser to Hun Sen; and Senator Ly Yong Phat, a permanent member of the CPP’s Central Committee.
Both men are sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for alleged involvement in corruption and criminal schemes.
“Such highly visible actors are joined by quieter yet equally influential Cambodian oligarchs such as Senator Kok An (who owns multiple Poipet and Sihanoukville-based compounds) and Hun To (a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet),” the report said.
